CILIARY BODY

The ciliary body is composed of the ciliary processes, ciliary muscle, and ciliary epithelium. About 70 radially arranged ciliary processes form the pars plicata anteriorly and are joined posteriorly with the smooth portion of the ciliary body, the pars plana. The pars plana joins the retina and choroid at the ora serrata. The ciliary body is covered by two nonpigmented layer and an outer pigmented layer. Under normal circumstances, ciliary body structures will not appear in vitrectomy specimens. However, ciliary epithelium may be sampled by fine needle aspiration of adjacent tumors. It is important to recognize the two-layered structure of the epithelium with abundant cytoplasm and large pigmented granules.

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